LOGANSPORT — For Dan Couch, there's somethin' 'bout co-writing a country song and having it performed by up-and-coming artist Kip Moore.
There's somethin' 'bout that song, "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck," currently sitting at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart for the second straight week.
But then there's something altogether different about being welcomed home to Logansport on Tuesday morning by friends, family, former coaches and fans and about having Mayor Ted Franklin proclaim June 5 as Daniel Ivan Couch Day that makes the experience "crazy cool."
"How crazy is that?" the 1985 Logansport High School graduate said.
Franklin said he was thrilled to declare the day in honor of Couch.
He said he posted "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" on his Facebook page and even his friends overseas had heard of it.
"Those of us who have lived here for a long time know that there is an abundance of talent here just waiting to be discovered," Franklin said. "This is one of the people who left town and made it big."
But Couch is no overnight success. His 16-year trek to the top through Nashville came with a strong work ethic and a wife he calls "St. Tina Marie," who never gave up on him and his chase of the dream.
"That's what it is," he said. "It's a dream come true."
Couch is the middle of five children who spent much of his childhood "chasing catfish and catching crawdads" in the Wabash River. The three-sport athlete would wait for his truck-driving dad to come home so he and his brothers could show him what they learned on the guitar while he was on the road.
Of course, he could be seen in his 1962 Chevrolet flatbed with wooden sideboards, which some who came to see him Tuesday remembered well.
Couch moved away from Logansport and found himself making $75,000 a year in Seattle in the early 1990s selling medical supplies in a suit, bored and empty inside, he recalls. He looked at his wife and said it was time to go to Nashville.
First, there was an 18-month stint in Logansport where he was a part of a band called Renegade. He, his brother Darrell and several friends jammed in the area as Couch aspired to become the next Garth Brooks.
"I'm so grateful for that delusional period in my life," Couch said about his dreams before moving to Nashville. "It took a few years of being there to recognize that what I really wanted to do and what I was passionate about was writing songs."
The Couches survived through Dan's jobs as a potato chip route driver and construction worker.
He'd sneak to Nashville from Murfreesboro, Tenn., any chance he got to do what he could to make it in the business.
He met and worked with several country artists through the years, including Lonestar and Moore.
Moore and Couch were jamming one afternoon and had just finished a song neither of them could remember today when they began talking about trucks they had owned, Couch said. Moore started strumming a tune on his guitar, and the two started improvising lyrics.
The rest is history.
Couch was canoeing with his son and his Boy Scout troop in Tennessee on May 19 when he began receiving calls and texts from Moore and the production company about the song reaching No. 1 on Mediabase/Country Charts for that week. All were watching the "spin count," or number of times the song received airtime that week. Couch compared the experience to an election night.
By midnight, the results were in: "Somethin' 'Bout a Truck" was No. 1.
For his brother Darrell, the song's success really struck a chord last weekend when the Couches were on a beach in Michigan and several kids began singing the song behind them.
"Then I realized, 'Wow this song is big,'" Darrell Couch said. "I knew it was No. 1, and it was a hit, but then you realize this is awesome."
Dan Couch's three children heard the song play over and over during its demo days and before it started getting airplay. They are the only ones, Couch said, that he thinks may be getting tired of the song.
"I don't think I'll ever get sick of it," he said. "When you're doing something that you love, doing it doesn't feel like work."
